Arrangement for treating bottles and the like receivers at a high rhythm



Jan. 10, 1967 R. PAGAY 3,297,123 ARRANGEMENT FOR TREATING BOTTLES AND THE LIKE RECEIVERS AT A HIGH RHYTHM Filed June 21, 1965 Pies 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 10, 1967 R. PAGAY 3,297,128

ARRANGEMENT FOR TREATING BOTTLES AND TH LIKE RECEIVERS AT A HIGH RHYTHM Filed JUIIEY 21, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 M W w m i M W United States Patent 3,297,128 ARRANGEMENT FOR TREATING BOTTLES AND THE LIKE RECEIVERS AT A HIGH RHYTHM Roger Pagay, 130 Cours du Docteur Long, Lyon, France Filed June 21, 1965, Ser. No. 465,400 Claims priority, application France, July 7, 1964, 44,972, Patent 1,408,967 3 Claims. (Cl. 198-22) When treating bottles and the like containers, the latter are generally caused to progress along two parallel lines in order to transfer them from one working station to another. However, machines adapted to treat containers to be filled or stoppered, or to be subjected to other treatments, operate only on bottles moving along a single row.

The improved arrangement, according to the invention, has for its object to increase or even to double the production, by leaving or setting the bottles along two rows instead of a single row, the machine rotating at the same speed as previously in the case of bottles moving on a single row.

Said arrangement which is more particularly applicable for machines executing a circular movement, relies on the use for the driving and guiding of the bottles, of a double distributing arrangement, including a selecting star-shaped member and a toothed chain moving in synchronism with said star-shaped member or toothed wheel.

The accompanying diagrammatic drawing illustrates by way of example, a preferred embodiment of my invention. In said drawing:

FIG. 1 is a general plan view of the whole arrangement,

FIG. 2 is a plan view on a larger scale of the selecting star-shaped member associated with the toothed chain,

FIGS. 3 and 4 are detail elevational views showing the operative members which rise and sink respectively towards the bottles,

FIG. 5 is a horizontal cross-section through line VV of FIG. 3.

The arrangement illustrated allows increasing the production without increasing the speed of the machine and to this end, it includes two worms 2 and 3 (FIG. 2) lying side by side ahead of the machine and located each at the end of a row of bottles, 4 and 5. One of the worms 2 distributes the bottles 6 forming the row 4 and leads them into the intervals separating the successive arms 7 of the star-shaped member 8 driven by the shaft 9. The other worm 3 ensures the distribution of the bottles 11 forming the row 5 inside the depressed sections 12 of a chain moving along the periphery of a frame 13.

A separating partition 14 holds in position the corresponding bottles in each row until they reach the corresponding movable supports 15 on which they are thus laid two by two and which lead them towards the operative stations executing the operations for which the machine has been designed.

When they have followed the complete circuit 16 along which the desired operations such as filling, stoppering, sheathing and the like are executed, the bottles or the like containers reach the output end of the machine and are taken hold of by an arrangement similar to that located at the input of the machine and wherein the bottles are laid on a rectilinear conveyor which leads them to the exhaust or lays them on further supports leading them towards other machines.

The arrangement includes a star-shaped member 17 removing the bottles 6 forming the row 4 off their supports 15 while the bottles forming the row 5 are separated from the former by a partition 18 and are engaged by the depressions 12 of the above-mentioned chain moving over the periphery of the frame 13.

If the bottles or containers have not been provided with caps, said bottles which are filled do not pass out of the machine directly to form the rows 19 and 20, and are fed by the star-shaped member and the depressions 12 to the capping stations 21 and 22 provided for this purpose in the vicinity of the machine. At the output of said cap ping stations the bottles are removed as precedingly so as to form again two rows 19 and 20.

In the case where the bottles are to be fed into a further machine, adapted to treat the bottles arranged in a single row 23 (FIG. 1), an arrangement 24 including a double worm is provided for setting the bottles on a single line or row so as to lead them towards said single station machine 25 which is adapted to ensure a sufficiently large production.

The arrangement disclosed allows resorting to bottle supports 26 (FIGS. 3 and 5), which are comparatively yielding, as provided by the insertion of springs 27 which absorb the differences in height between the bottles when the latter rise towards the operative members 28.

It is also possible to provide, as illustrated by way of a modification in FIG. 4 movable operating members 29 adapted to sink towards the bottles 30.

Obviously, the present invention is not limited to the sole embodiment which has been described hereinabove for handling or treating bottles and, except for certain details of execution, it is applicable to machines for packaging any product in bottles or containers of any desired material.

What I claim is:

1. In a bottle treating machine, the provision of an arrangement feeding bottles two by two into the machine, comprising two parallel bottle distributing worms lying side by side at the input of the machine and rotating in synchronism, a guideway associated with each worm in parallelism therewith and wherein the bottles progress with a uniform spacing under the action of the worm, a rotary toothed wheel the teeth interval of which is equal to the pitch of the worms, said wheel engaging the bottles distributed by one worm in the corresponding guideway to shift them along with said wheel, a toothed chain extending in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the wheel and the intervals between the teeth of which are equal to the pitch of the worms, said chain engaging the bottles distributed by the other worm in the corresponding guideway to shift them along said chain, a partition separating the bottles conveyed by the wheel from those conveyed by the chain, a plurality of moving supports adapted to be fed by successive pairs of bottles conveyed by the wheel and the chain respectively and means driving the chain and wheel in synchronism.

2. In a bottle treating machine, the provision of an arrangement feeding bottles two by two into the machine, comprising two parallel bottle distributing worms lying side by side at the input of the machine and rotating in synchronism, elastically yielding carriers for the bottles, a guideway associated with each worm in parallelism therewith and wherein the bottles progress with a uniform spacing under the action of the worm, a rotary toothed wheel the teeth interval of which is equal to the pitch of the worms, said wheel engaging the bottles on their sup ports, distributed by one worm in the corresponding guideway to shift them along with said wheel, a toothed chain extending in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the wheel and the intervals between the teeth of which are equal to the pitch of the worms, said chain engaging the bottles on their supports, distributed by the other worm in the corresponding guideway to shift them along said chain, a partition separating the bottles conveyed by the wheel from those conveyed by the chain, a plurality of moving supports adapted to be fed by successive pairs of bottles conveyed by the wheel and the chain respectively and means driving the chain and wheel in synchronism.

3. In a bottle treating machine, the provision of an arrangement feeding bottles two by two into the machine comprising two parallel bottle distributing worms lying side by side at the input of the machine and rotating in synchronism, a guideway associated with each Worm in parallelism therewith and wherein the bottles progress with a uniform spacing under the action of the worm, a rotary toothed wheel the teeth interval of which is equal to the pitch of the Worms, said wheel engaging the bottles distributed by one worm in the corresponding guideway to shift them along with said wheel, a toothed chain extending in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the wheel and the intervals between the teeth of which are equal to the pitch of the worms, said chain engaging the bottles distributed by the other worm in the corresponding guideway to shift them along said chain, a partition separating the bottles conveyed by the wheel from those conveyed by the chain, a plurality of moving supports adapted to be fed by successive pairs of bottles conveyed by the wheel and the chain respectively and means driving the chain and wheel in synchronism, and a bottle removing mechanism at the output of the machine comprising two output guideways, a toothed output wheel driven in synchronism with the above-mentioned toothed chain and the pitch of which is equal to that of the worms, the axis of said output wheel being parallelwith that of the firstmentioned wheel, said output wheel and said abovementioned chain being fed respectively by the abovementioned supports with the corresponding bottles of the successive pairs carried by the above-mentioned supports at the output of the machine, said bottles being transferred off the output wheel and chain respectively onto the corresponding worms and into the output guideways.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,510,096 9/1924 Miller 198--22 X 1,510,097 9/1924 Miller 198-22 1,847,485 3/1932 Kantor 19822 2,043,763 6/1936 Meyer et al 19822 EVON C. BLUNK, Primary Examiner.

A. C. HODGSON, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A BOTTLE TREATING MACHINE, THE PROVISION OF AN ARRANGEMENT FEEDING BOTTLES TWO BY TWO INTO THE MACHINE, COMPRISING TWO PARALLEL BOTTLE DISTRIBUTING WORMS LYING SIDE BY SIDE AT THE INPUT OF THE MACHINE AND ROTATING IN SYNCHRONISM, A GUIDEWAY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH WORM IN PARALLELISM THEREWITH AND WHEREIN THE BOTTLES PROGRESS WITH A UNIFORM SPACING UNDER THE ACTION OF THE WORM, A ROTARY TOOTHED WHEEL THE TEETH INTERVAL OF WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE PITCH OF THE WORMS, SAID WHEEL ENGAGING THE BOTTLES DISTRIBUTED BY ONE WORM IN THE CORRESPONDING GUIDEWAY TO SHIFT THEM ALONG WITH SAID WHEEL, A TOOTHED CHAIN EXTENDING IN A PLANE PERPENDICULAR TO THE AXIS OF THE WHEEL AND THE INTERVALS BETWEEN THE TEETH OF WHICH ARE EQUAL TO THE PITCH OF THE WORMS, SAID CHAIN ENGAGING THE BOTTLES DISTRIBUTED BY THE OTHER WORM IN THE CORRESPONDING GUIDEWAY TO SHIFT THEM ALONG SAID CHAIN, A PARTITION SEPARATING THE BOTTLES CONVEYED BY THE WHEEL FROM THOSE CONVEYED BY THE CHAIN, A PLURALITY OF MOVING SUPPORTS ADAPTED TO BE FED BY SUCCESSIVE PAIRS OF BOTTLES CONVEYED BY THE WHEEL AND THE CHAIN RESPECTIVELY AND MEANS DRIVING THE CHAIN AND WHEEL IN SYNCHRONISM. 